ask – English Grammar Profiler

C2, MODALITY, NEGATIVE / ask, can, could, expect, not, say, tell, understand, very, VM, VVI, well, XX

In the English Vocabulary Profile at C2: can’t/couldn’t very well do sth = used to say that something is not a suitable or practical thing to do A search in the iWeb corpus for: _VM _XX very well _V 1 CAN’T VERY WELL HAVE 30 2 CAN’T VERY WELL GO 28 3 CAN’T VERY WELL …

can’t | couldn’t + very well + INFINITIVE Read More »

C2, conditional, opinion, phrases / ask, dumb, if, me, nicely, ridiculous, stupid, you

‘if you ask me’ is C2 in the English Vocabulary Profile and is used to give opinions. For example: And it‘s about damned time if you ask me. listen Collocations of ‘if you ask me’ in COCA show that this is used mostly to give negative opinions. 1 STUPID 10 2 NICELY 9 3 BS 6 4 DUMB …

if you ask me Read More »

advice, B1, command, direct, GSE, infinitive, object, REPORTED SPEECH, request / add, advise, advised, appear, ask, asked, believe, call, complete, confirm, consider, contact, cover, enter, everyone, god, join, keep, like, provide, recommend, share, sign, tell, them, to, told, try, VVI, want, would, you

This post contains an example of overlapping B1 grammar points located inside two different categories in the English Grammar Profile (EGP). EGP B1 point 6 in the category of REPORTED SPEECH is defined as: REPORTED REQUESTS AND COMMANDS with ‘ask’ or ‘tell’ + direct object and ‘to-‘infinitive EGP B1 point 38 in the category of …

VERB + DIRECT OBJECT + to INFINITIVE Read More »

B1, CLAUSES, PRONOUNS, QUESTIONS, REPORTED SPEECH, tense / ask, could, if, P, PELIC, V, were, whether, wish

B1 English Grammar Profile point 5 in REPORTED SPEECH is defined as: ‘YES-NO’ QUESTIONS using ‘ask’ + ‘if’ or ‘whether’ + clause, with a pronoun and tense shift where relevant. A search in iWeb for: ask* * if|whether _P _V 1 ASKED ME IF I WANTED 2391 2 ASKED ME IF I WAS 2083 3 …

ask + if | whether + CLAUSE Read More »

C1, CLAUSES, conditional, ellipsis, imperatives, indefinite, PRONOUNS / anything, ask, feel, imagine, just, need, PN1, recommend, suggest, tell, want

Here are two examples of indefinite pronouns in ellipted conditional clauses: Anything we can do, anything you need, just tell us. listen Anything you want there, anything at all, just take it. Kings Row (1942) *They mean:  “if there is anything that we can do” or “if there is anything that you want” C1 point 100 in PRONOUNS/indefinite is defined as: ‘anything’ in an ellipted clause.   (‘if there is anything …’) When …

anything (ellipsis) Read More »

B2, PAST, perfect, QUESTIONS, REPORTED SPEECH, simple / ask, asked, considered, experienced, noticed, VVN

B2 Point 57 in the category of past and perfect simple is defined as: REPORTS OF QUESTIONS where the main verb in the reporting clause is in the past simple. *However, only by investigating the rest of the EGP do we discover that there is an B1 point that clashes here for yes-no questions in …

past perfect simple (report of question) Read More »